Dear All, Lucie Cornelssen's book Hunting the 'I' gives
many good approches to self enquiry and also good
explanations to the spiritual path in general as taught
by Ramana Maharshi.

On 2 Ramana-groups I have started to post out of Hunting
the 'I'-, so this is not new to members from there. But
I think it's worthy to be posted here also. - Comments
welcome!

First let's have a short look on who she was:

Lucie Cornelssen was born in Germany at the end of the
19th century. During the second world war the only
German book on Sri Ramana which was available was from
the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer "Der Weg zum Selbst"
which made great impression on her. She felt very much
drawn to Bhagavan and decided to utilize her linguistic
and writing talents (she was a professional writer ) to
translate more of Sri Bhagavan's words into German.
With no Tamil teacher to help her, she spent two years
in an hermitage in a German forest. When she finally
felt able to read and understand the Tamil, she
translated some of Ramana's teaching into German.

In the Fiftieth she decided to make a pilgrimage to
Arunachala and took her manuscripts with her. She laid
the manuscript on Bhagavan's samadhi. Soon afterwards a
German publisher was interested in and the book came
out. She spent several months living alone in a small
shrine near the Pradakshina road, a few miles from the
Ashram spending her time with sadhana. Later she stayed
near Ramanashram and was a well known figure there.
Besides a short Ramana-Biography and translations of the
Talks in German she wrote "Hunting the 'I', which
appeared in English and German edition. Here she also
gives some practical advice and explanations on self
inquiry.

in Sri Ramana
Gabriele

******************

This pure be-ing 'I am' is the first glimpse of the real
'I', the Self, which is by nature Pure Consciousness.

When your attention is keen, then you will discover
simultanously that there is not now and never has been
a wrong 'I'. It has always been the same 'real I', only
your mind has covered it up with the idea which it has
about your 'person'.

There are other opportunities, when we could experience
this pure 'I' consciously. One such is during the tiny
gap between two thoughts, when the attention has given
up its hold on one thought and not yet caught the next
one. But since we never tried our attention is not
trained this way, and we will hardly succeed in the
attempt.

There is a better chance to catch it between sleeping
and awaking. It is very important to try it, if you are
serious in your hunting the 'I'. Take care of a few
conditions: Try at night just before you fall asleep to
keep as the last thought your intention to catch as the
first thing of all on waking in the morning the
experience of your true 'I'.

Another condition: You should take care not to awaken
too abruptly such as by an alarm clock, and also not to
jump headlong into your daily morning routine. The
moment you awake, don't stir, but remember your
intention from last night.

You will succeed after a few attempts. And what is
possible once even for a moment can be extended by
practice.

This experiment gives you the advantage that you now
know the aim of your endeavour. It will help you in
your further sadhana like leavening in the dough.

Lucy Cornelssen: Hunting the 'I', p. 25f

____________________________________________________________________

FRANCES HUNTER from Daily Dharma

"It is essential to learn to confront the less pleasant
aspects of existence. Our job as meditators is to learn
to be patient with ourselves, to see ourselves in an
unbiased way, complete with all our sorrows and
inadequacies. We have to learn to be kind to ourselves.
In the long run, avoiding unpleasantness is a very
unkind thing to do to yourself. Paradoxically, kindness
entails confronting unpleasantness when it arises. One
popular human strategy for dealing with difficulty is
autosuggestion: when something nasty pops up, you
convince yourself it is pleasant rather than unpleasant.
The Buddha's tactic is quite the reverse. Rather than
hide it or disguise it, the Buddha's teaching urges you
to examine it to death. Buddhism advises you not to
implant feelings that you don't really have or avoid
feelings that you do have. If you are miserable you are
miserable; this is the reality, that is what is
happening, so confront that. Look it square in the eye
without flinching. When you are having a bad time,
examine the badness, observe it mindfully, study the
phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a
trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it is built.
You do this by taking the thing apart piece by piece.
The trap can't trap you if it has been taken to pieces.
The result is freedom." --by H. Gunaratana Mahathera.

In a bid to wipe out corruption from the country's
police force, tens of thousands of officers nationwide
will be asked to enter temples and live as monks for an
unspecified period in the hope they will see the error
of their ways.

Assistant national police chief Pol Lt-Gen Udom Charoen
said he planned to introduce the programme after
receiving many complaints from the public about officers
who had chosen not to charge influential or wealthy
suspects.

``We cannot prosecute corrupt police officers without
evidence,'' he said. ``The only thing we can do is try
to change their behaviour by encouraging them to adopt
Buddhist principles and practice meditation.''

Pol Lt-Gen Udom hoped to attract at least 20,000
officers to the programme, under which they would be
required to live in the manner of monks, rising early
for meditation and prayers, and attending daily sermons.

Buddhist miracle in Siberia Steven Lee Myers
The New York Times, Wednesday, October 2, 2002

Lama's body is intact, 75 years after his death

IVOLGINSK, Russia

A miracle has occurred here in Siberia. Or it may be a
hoax. Others believe science can explain it. It is a
question, it seems, of faith. . The story begins in
1927, when a spiritual leader of Russia's Buddhists
gathered his students and announced his plans to die.
The leader, Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, the 12th Pandito
Hambo Lama, then 75 and retired, instructed those
gathered around him to "visit and look at my body" in
30 years. . He crossed his legs into the lotus
position, began to meditate and, chanting a prayer for
the dead, died. . The years that followed were difficult
for all faiths in Russia, including the Buddhists here
in Buryatia, an impoverished Siberian region on the
Mongolian border.

Ayusheyev says the body was preserved because Itigilov
achieved a heightened state of existence through
meditation known as shunyata, or emptiness. . He
acknowledged that there would be skepticism. When
greeted with it, he relented on his own order and led a
visitor into the temple to the darkened chamber where
Itigilov sits atop a simple table, surrounded by
candles and metal bowls holding oils. . The lamas have
dressed his body in a golden robe, with a blue sash
laid across his lap. His eyes are closed, his features
blurred, though the shape of his face and his nose
certainly resemble the 1913 photograph. His hands
remain flexible, his nails perfectly trimmed. His skin
is leathery but soft. His head is still covered in
short-trimmed hair. . "Many people don't see what's
obvious," Ayusheyev said. "Many people won't understand
even if they see him."